Fugitives
by seethedawn
Summary: How one thoughtless action could have changed all of their lives forever. An alternate Volume 4, where just one part of "Trust and Blood" has been altered. From there, it veers wildly away from the recognizable story. I think you should give it a go!
1. Chapter 1

Fugitives

Prologue

Nathan is worried. He'd known, when he first went to the President, that he was crossing a line that he wouldn't be able to get back over, ever. Never mind how long it took to wipe the 'Now Nathan, I understand you've had a very stressful year…' look off the President's face. Things began to spiral from the minute he opened his mouth.

First he was stuck with Danko, who remindes Nathan of a crazed pit bull on a fraying fabric leash.

Plus, Peter won't speak to him, Bennet's loyalties are quite severely compromised, and now his Mother can't control Claire. Then it gets complicated. If his mother loses her hold on Claire, then he has to take Claire in or lose Bennet. If he loses Bennet then he's lost the most experienced man he has, and if he lets Claire go free she's bound to tell someone. So, what he really needs is some kind of hold over Claire, which he doesn't really want to have to do. She is his kid after all.

Speaking of kids, his youngest leaves him sad messages on his phone about once a week, inviting him to the zoo, but he never has time to call back, let alone take the kid out to the damn zoo. So his wife isn't on speaking terms with him again. His Mother's not happy with him either, only agreeing to help at all because she doesn't want to be rounded up like all the others.

All of that is just background noise now though. His usual, manageable level of stress. Today Nathan Petrelli is almost biting his nails while he paces his office. Today they're going after their first one. Tracy Strauss. If Danko pulls this one off, then they're also going to hit Peter, Suresh, Sylar, and Parkman today. It's morning in New York, so the team'll be going after Nakumura in an hour or two.

Nathan Petrelli does not think of a childish, chubby face trying to pronounce 'Villain', he does not think of Tracy jumping off that bridge, and he absolutely does not think about Peter. Not teaching Peter to play ball because Dad wasn't around, not how Peter trusted him when he first discovered his powers, and defiantly not about the look of Peter's face when they last spoke.

Tracy Strauss is taken from her living room in a bathrobe.

Hiro Nakumura is abducted from a warehouse in Tokyo.

Mohinder Suresh is cornered in an empty parking garage.

Peter Petrelli is hugging his big brother in his New York apartment.

Claire Bennet surrenders in the middle of her rescue attempt.

Matt Parkman is shot through a window with his back turned.

And it continues to spiral downward from there.

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - **So I know it's been basically the exact same thing so far, but it's all part of the plan. Just give me until the end of the next chapter to get everything set up, ok? And even if you don't, thank you so much for reading!

Oh, and I don't own Heroes!

Chapter one

Peter couldn't see. It was weird, like he had his eyes closed or something. But they were open, he was sure of it. Except he couldn't really feel if they were open or not. Were his eyes open? He tried opening them again, but he couldn't feel any difference.

Come to think of it, he couldn't really feel very much. He was sort of numb. He also felt like maybe he should be more worried about his numbness, and lack of ability to tell if his eyes were open or not. He still didn't know.

He tried to lift his hand up, to maybe feel if his eyes were open. Then, with that information he could figure out if he needed to open them still, or if he was just in a dark room. Or a closet?

It was really hard to move his hand around. In fact, it kind of hurt. He couldn't feel his hand. And he couldn't see to know if his hand was moving or not.

Kind of ironic. He needs to move his hand to see if his eyes are open, but he needs his eyes to open to see if his hand is moving.

There's something sort of tugging at the back of his mind. Like he knows what all this strange business is really about, but at the moment Peter doesn't really care to have any of his questions answered.

Overall, Peter is just very tired, and happy just to sit (lie down? He can't tell that either) and move his face muscles around until he gets the one that opens his eyes.

Except he can't feel if his face muscles are moving or not…

There is a sudden, blinding light in front of Peter. For a second he thinks that he's finally managed to open his eyes. He hears someone say his name, then Claire swims in to focus. She pulls something out of his nose, and his medically trained brain quickly supplies an explanation.

Nathan.

Peter is not going to forgive him for this.

But, for now, Claire is in front of him, panicky and awaiting instructions. She wakes Suresh, and Peter manages to free himself. He identifies and wakes Parkman on his other side before the guards make their way over. A year ago he wouldn't have been able to even function in this situation, but now he throws armed Government Agents around the plane like it's nothing.

Claire is on the other side of the aisle, she's woken up Tracy, a young looking kid with short brown hair, and she's pulling off another guy's hood when a guard gets back up. Peter tosses him around a bit more, but stops when Claire shrieks.

"What?" he asks, turning around. He knows immediately. He would be able to recognize that dark, currently lolling head anywhere. Claire, still backing up, answers anyway.

"It's Sylar!"

To Be Continued...


	3. And Then He Fired

Chapter two

Then He Fired.

Luke was one of those teenagers who had spent the first seventeen years of his life waiting for his life to start.

He wasn't going to be a rock star or anything dumb like that, he was just going to be Somewhere Else. Anywhere Else.

When he discovered his whole Melting Shit thing, he thought maybe he could be like a bank robber or something. Like he would melt the safe door off or whatever.

And next time his Dad decided to stop by, Ho-ly Fuck was that going to be good.

Then everything took a bizarre left turn when a super-powered serial killer randomly held him and his Mom hostage a few days ago.

The guy, Sylar – how Badass of a name is that? – turned out to be kind of okay. Weird as hell, with crazy mood swings like nothing Luke's seen before, and as a High School student, Luke has seen some crazy mood swings.

So Luke tagged along. He got that he was only there because he had information Sylar needed, but he was use to not really being wanted. He made the best of it. Apart from the threats, and the creepy looks, and his Mother's words ringing in his ears, it could have been a real road trip.

They talked about Sylar's Dad a bit. Luke didn't have the heart to tell the guy that his Dad was kind of a jerk. Luke had always been a bit of a compulsive liar, and he didn't want to make Sylar think that there wasn't any point going to find his Dad, so he mildly exaggerated the pleasantness of pre-dawn birding trips with Sampson Gray.

And then he totally freaked out when Luke warmed some guy's milk.

"Always have an objective," he said. Luke liked that.

"Emergancy exit. _Walk_. Don't run. Move." Sylar threw a bill on the counter and heaved Luke off his stool.

And then it got _really_ weird. Normal looking people suddenly had guns pointed straight at them. Luke had thought there were only two! And one guy had a gun right to the back of Sylar's head.

"Right on the sweet spot," he said.

Then he fired.

Sylar crumpled.

People screamed. Luke stood, staring. Sylar had seemed so invincible. It didn't seem possible. He snapped out of his reverie when the milk guy from earlier moved forward and hit him in the chest with a taser.

Luke screamed. Everything went black.

When Luke came around he thought he was dead. Which was funny, because he'd never really believed in an afterlife, but surely any deity with standards wouldn't have sent and angel for him.

Then the grubby blonde apparition before him yanked something out of his nose, and Luke quickly returned to his senses. Luke watched her move down the line, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. There were two rows of orange people with black hoods and facemasks and earmuffs. Terrorists maybe?

He heard her shriek, he couldn't see why though. She was backing away from something a few people down from him. Then he heard her.

"It's Sylar!"

Luke strained against his cuffs, wanting to lean forward and see for himself. Could Sylar be alive somehow? Could he move stuff with his mind, detect lies and be unaffected by bullets?

"Peter! Peter it's Sylar!" The man was just staring. Maybe he thought Sylar was dead too.

"Peter! What do we do?"

"Leave him."

"He'll wake up!"

"No, he won't. He's sedated. Just go up to the cockpit and - "

"No, Peter! He'll find a way. We have to stop him now! We have the chance, finally!"

"NO!" Luke cried out, desperate. If he had survived somehow, he couldn't let them kill him again. What if he only had a certain number of lives?

Luke saw Peter turn towards him, maybe to say something, maybe to kill him too, but by then Luke had melted right through his handcuffs.

"Hey, kid - " Peter began, but a guard tackled him from behind.

Luke surged towards Sylar, shoving the girl out of his way. She fell against the cockpit door.

Luke stumbled and put one, still cooking hand on Sylar's wrist. He reached up with his other to yank as hard as he could on the tube hanging from Sylar's nose.

Someone grabbed his shoulder and he came spinning around, still with the nose tube in his fist. It was one of the men in black. He spared a glance around, to see if any help was coming his way. The girl was staring dumbfounded at a very tall man with glasses by the cockpit, and Peter was being beaten by some other guard in the opposite corner.

The guy holding Luke pulled his fist back, probably to punch Luke hard in the face. Well acquainted with this treatment, Luke threw his own hands forward at the man's face, melting it off like some X rated Harry Potter scene.

The Government drone crumpled against Luke,_ totally gross_, who stumbled against the wall of the plane.

It was sort of like slow motion after that. Luke saw himself touch the metal walls of the plane, he felt himself melting it, he was very aware that he was _melting the plane_, but he couldn't turn it off in time.

The next thing he felt was a huge, deadly rush of wind. The body of the guy he'd killed whipped past him, out into the sky.

And Luke could feel himself following.

These moments went by very slowly for Luke. He saw the girl being pulled to safety by that tall guy. He saw a dark looking Mexican guy holding Peter. He looked around the whole room at people screaming as the plane went down.

Then he saw a pair of dark eyes framed by pale skin and obese-caterpillar style eyebrows.

Sylar was staring him down, totally focused on Luke.

Totally focused on keeping Luke from being swept out of the plane.

The plane was still nose diving at the earth, but somehow Luke didn't worry.

Sylar was alive after all.

**A/N - **This was mostly a catchup chapter, to get Sylar and Luke on the plane. I figure that it they imported Hiro from Tokyo so he could be on the same flight as the guys from New York, then it's not such a stretch.

I couldn't remember if Peter had met Tracy before this, so I had him call her Nikki in the chapter before this. Like half an hour later I watched Trust and Blood and hey, he does know her. Great. I'll change it next time I edit.

Oh, and if you didn't catch it, Luke hasn't told Sylar where his Dad is.

So what did you think?


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Three**

When the plane landed, they scattered. Tracy was the first to bolt through the gaping hole in the side of the plane. Mohinder let go of Peter, ripped off Matt's handcuffs and started running, dragging the large ex cop behind him. Peter had immediately rushed to find and free other survivors.

Since the screaming stopped, no one had said a word.

Peter was walking sideways like a crab as he passed by Sylar, who was silently contemplating his handcuffs, like he was trying to decide which ability to use to free himself.

"Need some help?" Peter offered, hesitantly.

In reply, electricity started to crackle around Sylar's one trapped wrist. In seconds it had melted away. Sylar stood, and Peter backed away slightly, wondering how on earth he was supposed to fight Sylar with only enhanced strength. Sylar, however, continued to ignore him. He walked over to that kid who'd caused the crash, picked him up off the floor and slung him over one shoulder.

"I suggest you make yourself scarce. It's not going to be hard for them to find this." And with that, Sylar walked out into the night.

That snapped Peter out of it.

Hiro was still trapped, sitting with his eyes shut tight, like he was trying to stop time, or maybe teleport himself away.

Peter broke his cuffs. "Hiro." He said, gently, shaking his shoulder, "Hiro, we're safe, but you've got to get moving!"

Hiro was shaky when he first stood up, Peter worried that he might throw up or pass out, but the little Japanese guy continued to show surprising resilience.

"Matt and Mohinder went that way," said Peter, pointing, "I'll catch up later."

Hiro was clearly reluctant to leave a friend behind, but he was also aware that there wasn't really anything he could do to help.

So he ran.

Peter broke a few more people out; they ranged from delirious to hysterical. He was as helpful as he could be, but he was running out of time fast. He had to find Claire.

He went up to the cockpit, and tried to open the door. It was stuck, like something very heavy was blocking it on the other side. So he pulled it right off its hinges.

Something had been blocking it. He suspected it might have been that huge piece of warped metal, which had once been the floor. It had probably crumpled during the crash landing. The pilot was dead. Quite horribly too.

Peter forced open the door to the toilet.

"Peter, thank God." It was Claire. She had, predictably, regained consciousness faster than her mortal Father. Bennet was probably only alive through sheer force of will at this point.

He had pushed her into the toilet, and then crowded himself in there too, so now she was crouching on the toilet seat, with him slumped unconscious against her. Peter pulled her out, not really bothered when this made Bennet hit his head falling to the floor.

He helped her across the jagged metal and out to the big hole in the side of the plane. No one else in the cargo bay was moving. Except it wasn't silent anymore. Peter could distinctly make out the sound of helicopters, quickly growing louder.

Peter grabbed Claire's hand, and they ran.

{ - }

Mohinder took half a second to close his eyes and thank his Father for every single mad thing that had happened to him over the last few years.

Then he returned all of his focus to running for his life from Government Agents who were after him because he injected himself with an experimental formula that gave him superhuman powers.

Hiro was lagging behind. Matt, compelled by his trance – and side note: when did Matt start having bloody trances? – was leading the way to God knows where.

They kept on moving until well past dawn. They all needed to rest every so often, but it was hard to control Matt, and no one could relax amid the startling cacophony of barking dogs, gunfire and helicopters.

Finally, a squalid looking trailer came in to view.

{ - }

Luke awoke twice as disoriented as he'd been when he first woke on the plane, in the total silence and dark.

He was very cold. The cold was coming mostly from the large gray rock he was leaning against. He could feel the chill creeping through his flimsy orange jumpsuit.

Where the fuck was he?

He looked around, barley able to see anything in the dark. He could make out the outlines of trees, and a couple of other big rocks around him. The rock closest to his line of vision had some sort of weird scratches on them. Like writing. Luke leaned forward, peering at the carving.

"STAY PUT"

So, despite the overwhelming urge to just start running, Luke stayed put. Sylar'd saved him on the plane. He'd be back.

{ - }

Sylar had found what looked like an old hunting road, and had been following it back in the general direction of the crash site. Whoever thought they could lock him up, was in for a surprise.

{ - }

Peter had been shocked to feel himself tasered while hugging his brother, flabbergast to find himself drugged and cuffed and astounded when a giant hole had opened in the side of the plane. Because of all this, he was only mildly surprised when Bennet emerged from the bushes to threaten him. He was, again, shocked when Bennet suddenly changed his aim and, before Peter could turn his head, fired three times. Claire screamed, pulling on her unrelenting Father's arm with all her strength.

Someone grunted and fell to the ground behind him. By then, Peter had managed to turn fully around.

Sylar, again. Peter wasn't surprised anymore.

"Peter! Run!" Cried Claire, as Bennet lowered his gun. Claire didn't resist as her Father pulled her back down the hill.

Peter could hear the search parties coming up the road. Bennet was unlikely to buy him any time.

Sylar groaned on the floor.

"Slyar. C'mon Sylar, you gotta get up."

Sylar dragged himself into a sitting position. Peter heard the bullet, squeezed from his head, hit the ground.

"Seriously Sylar, Claire heals way faster than you do."

Two more dropped from his chest into his lap. Sylar turned to glare at him, and possibly to kill him, and for one second Peter could see straight through his head. The hole quickly closed itself.

Dogs barked in the distance.

Sylar stood up. "We gotta go," said Peter, moving in the direction of the trees. Sylar quickly followed.

Overhead missiles rained down on the remains of their unfortunate airplane.

**A/N - **So it's actually really hard switching from one character to another so many times in one chapter. I feel like I'm having trouble writing things that actually sound like Peter would say them too. And I totally get how hard it is to make sure every one has something to be doing. Haha this little idea I had it turning out to be a lot more work than I'd anticipated.

I've been plotting too, and it's starting to look pretty epic sized.

So comments, suggestions, and reviews are all very much appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Four**

Sylar's strength quickly came back to him. Peter was envious, and oh so exhausted. He was dead on his feet when Sylar finally stopped.

"We're far enough ahead of them, for now." Though how he could tell, Peter didn't know or really care. He collapsed gratefully into a heap on the ground, and just breathed for few moments. Sylar leaned against a tree trunk.

"How'd you know?"

"They'll have to sweep every inch of the forest. They're looking for up to twenty escapees, scattered in every possible direction. We have about twenty minutes before their dogs catch our scent in this direction."

"Oh. So are we… working together then?" Peter asked, looking up at Sylar's face.

Sylar shrugged. "We're escaping in the same direction, for now."

Peter laughed. "Until you don't need someone for them to take down while you escape, you mean?"

Sylar shrugged again. "Right. And you're here because you're worried about my safety? Or is it because at the moment all you can do it throw rocks at them from great distances? Right now you need me more than I need you."

"Yeah. That's what scares me."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I promise not to cut your head open for at least the next three days. Deal?"

Of all his encounters with Sylar, from bad to genuinely death defying, one common thread was how absolutely impossible the man was to deal with.

"Where's the kid you carried off? If I agree, you can't cut _any_ heads in half for as long as we're _escaping in the same direction._"

"He's fine. Let's keep on moving." Sylar pushed himself up and away form the tree.

"Peter jumped up too, "Woah, wait a minute. Do you agree? _No one_ dies?"

"No one you like, or just no one?"

"No one."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm going to shred the first agent who I can get my hands on."

Peter could tell a lost cause when he saw one. "But no civilians or people with abilities?"

Sylar rolled his eyes. "Fine. I can do that. We'll be seeing plenty of government agents anyway."

{ - }

Hiro was exhausted. He was immensely grateful for his extended stay in feudal Japan, because without it he would have been out of strength and will half a day ago. Still, he hadn't eaten since yesterday evening, he was horrifically jet lagged, he still had drugs in his system and his body was almost totally out of adrenalin.

And now they were running _back_ to the campsite.

He understood why though. Matt Parkman had the chance to save the woman he loved from being killed. What kind of a hero would he be if he didn't help? Even if he didn't have his powers – and no word he had come across in Japanese or English could accurately describe how it was that this was the situation that destiny chose for him to not be able to teleport himself out of– he could still stand by his friends.

The frenzied searching of last night had died off. No helicopters or searchlights or distant gunfire.

So Hiro trudged on, one foot in front of the other, through the forest, back towards the crashed plane.

{ - }

Peter and Sylar walked in silence. The area was pretty clear, a couple of trees dotted around here and there.

They'd been walking for about an hour when Peter saw them. He immediately raised both arms and started waving them around.

"Hey! Hey Mohinder! Matt! Hiro! Hey! Over here!"

Peter kept waving. At his side Sylar grumbled.

Mohinder, Matt and Hiro had noticed him almost as soon as he'd started waving. He was still bright orange after all.

{ - }

Mohinder reached Peter first. It took him a second to recognize Peter's companion. Once he did though, he reacted with predictable outrage.

"Sylar?! What's _he_ doing here?"

"Having my Constitutional Rights trampled all over!"

Peter gave him an imploring look.

"Mohinder, he was on the plane, same as us. He's just trying to get away, like us."

"Peter, you can't trust him! You just _can't_!"

"You know, Mohinder, I'm kind of upset that you've yet to acknowledge me properly. After all we've been through…"

"_Been through?!_ All you've _put me through_ you mean!"

"Look, guys, let's just - " Matt tried, holding Mohinder's shoulder.

Hiro stood, a little apart from the group, warily watching Sylar. So he wasn't paying attention to anything else when Mohinder easily broke Matt's grip, surged forward and punched Sylar, as hard as he could in the jaw. Peter and Matt were pretty dumbfounded, staring openmouthed. Mohinder was breathing was like a train, readying himself for a return blow.

Hiro watched as Sylar reached up and moved his broken jaw back into position. He grinned at Mohinder.

"Call it even then?"

That was when Hiro decided to give Sylar a chance.

That was also when Mohinder hit him again.

{ - }

Matt watched as Sylar's face, again, became unblemished. Daphne didn't have time for this. He had to get to her now.

"Okay, look, there's a cabin an hour or so up that way," Matt said, pointing back the way they'd come. "We're going back to the crash site - "

"Why?"

"To save the woman he loves!" cried Hiro. Sylar looked over at him properly for the first time that morning. _Rednecks make better lovers_. Sylar laughed.

"It is true!" Said Hiro, indignant. Sylar laughed again, though Hiro probably wasn't defending the shirt.

"What're you talking about?" Asked Peter.

"It's a long story," said Matt, itching to be on his way, "We really don't have time!"

"Okay, Sylar and I can come with - "

"No, Sylar _can't_ come with us. I am just not going to - " spat Mohinder.

"Calm down Mohinder. I've got an errand of my own to run. You go play Secret Rescue Mission, I'll find you at that cabin."

"Okay," said Peter, as Sylar walked off, away from both Cabin and Crash Site. Mohinder relaxed almost instantly.

As they were walking Mohinder and Hiro caught Peter up on what had happened to them since the crash. Peter did too, amid Mohinder's strenuous objections to anything Sylar. Matt trudged on ahead, determined to find Daphne alive and well.

{ - }

Running over the Pacific Ocean had probably been one of the most terrifying things Ando had ever done. Not that he was going to let Nemesis see that.

They looked down into the valley, at the rubble that had once been an airplane.

Only the Cheerleader had survived the crash.

How could Hiro have escaped from that wreckage? Could Matt Parkman be alive too?

It was certainly odd how comforting it was to know that Hiro couldn't be dead because he hadn't killed him.

Then Nemesis came back with the Cheerleader in tow.

"Cheerleader!"

"You have to tell us what happened! Quickly!" said Nemesis.

The Cheerleader opened her mouth to reply, and the next thing Ando heard was gunshots.

Nemesis crumpled. Claire shoved him to the ground, throwing herself in front of Daphne. They shot the cheerleader to the ground too, and were advancing fast. Ando readied his red lightning. He heard Nemesis groaning on the dirt.

Ando shot lightning straight at one advancing man, he fell to the floor.

"DAPHNE!" He heard someone yell. Then the agents were shooting at each other, and Peter Petrelli was at his side, kneeling by Daphne.

The Cheerleader coughed and sat up. Doctor Suresh and Matt Parkman ran over, Matt knelt by Daphne too. Then Ando heard a familiar voice cry out, "Ando!"

Hiro ran over, and hugged him.

A lot of people were talking at once. Dr. Suresh and Peter Petrelli were talking quickly over Daphne's body. Hiro was chattering in Japanese in Ando's ear. Claire was trying to insist that everyone get away from here, now!

Matt Parkman was still controlling that one agent, making him continue to shoot down his fellows. Then Parkman's agent fell too.

A new, shorter man in black walked over the hill, gun trained on Parkman.

Then shouts erupted from the makeshift camp down by the crashed plane.

{ - }

Danko looked out of his peripheral vision to see what new problem he had to deal with. Another orange suit had emerged from the trees, and was walking confidently out into his camp.

"Is that…Sylar?" he heard the Bennet girl say from below him.

Danko swore, swiveling around to take aim at his new target. Something hit him very hard on the back of his head. Danko crumpled, unconscious.

The last thing he heard was all hell breaking loose in his camp.

To Be Continued...


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5**

Luke was getting sick of being a good little boy. It was now just after dawn, and he was still at the same pile of rocks. He'd been scowling at the STAY PUT for a number of hours now. He was hungry and fidgety and bored. He'd set some leaves on fire, melted a few bugs, but now he was just getting irritated.

And a tad worried. What if he was sitting here like an idiot while Sylar was escaping without him? Or what if Sylar had been captured again? Was there any point waiting for Sylar to come back?

He had just about had enough when he was shot in the back with another fucking taser.

_Crap_, he thought, as the world once more faded to black.

{ - }

There had been a man at Pinehearst, who could draw power from the fear of those around him. As Sylar watched them scramble to form some kind of defense, he really wished he'd ignored Arthur, _Dad_, and taken that one.

Not that he really needed it. They were shooting at him now. He stopped the bullets with a wave of his hand.

{ - }

The minute Claire saw Sylar, she forgot how angry she was at her Father, at Nathan, how absolutely terrified she was of Sylar himself, she just took off running. She had to find her Dad before Sylar did. There was no doubt in her mind that Sylar would kill him with as little hesitation as her Dad had shown earlier that morning.

Except her Dad wouldn't get back up.

{ - }

Peter rolled Danko's body, confiscating various guns and other weapons.

Matt was leaning over Daphne, whispering to her. Mohinder was keeping pressure on the wound, like Peter had instructed him to. A little off to the side, Hiro and Ando were having an incomprehensible conversation.

Everyone was also watching Sylar let loose on the men below.

"Get her back to the cabin. Get her comfortable and keep pressure on that wound! Wait for us there!" Peter yelled, then he took off after Claire, not looking back to see if they were following orders.

{ - }

Matt had wanted to carry Daphne, but had yielded to Mohinder's logic. Daphne wasn't heavy, but they had to go several miles at a fast pace. Super strength was designed for jobs like these.

They were quiet as they slipped back into the trees. They met a few guards who were rushing back to the camp to assist. Or, judging from the screams, begin the clean up. Most didn't notice them. Matt mentally told them to _Sleep_, or Ando hit them with his odd red energy.

It was a nightmare. Mohinder had to carry Daphne with one arm, so he could keep continuous pressure on her chest wound with his other. Matt was walking uncomfortably close, constantly getting in the way of Mohinder's feet. He had to keep looking back to check on Hiro and Ando, who had reverted entirely to Japanese now.

It seemed to take twice as long to find the cabin again. They had to double back at one point. Finally they found it. Matt rushed forward to hold open the door, and Mohinder settled Daphne down on the unmade bed in the corner.

"We need any fabric you can find, if you see bandages that's even better."

Hiro and Ando quickly searched the trailer. Matt was kneeling by the bed, holding Daphne's hands, murmering to her. Mohinder was awkwardly reaching around him to stem the blood flow with bits of orange jumpsuit Hiro had fetched.

Peter needed to bring Claire. Daphne wasn't doing well.

{ - }

Most of them were either dead or pretending. Sylar found one who was clearly still conscious, groaning, holding his burnt leg at a painful looking angle.

Sylar leaned over him, "I'm looking for Luke Cambell. He wasn't where I left him, could you point me in his direction please?"

{ - }

Claire found her Dad, bleeding behind a few barrels. He'd been hit with one of the bullets Sylar had been flinging around.

"Claire" he panted, staring at her with pain filled eyes. "Claire, go."

"Stay still, okay. I'm going to help you." She looked around for a knife, or a sharp rock or something. She quickly found a knife, strapped to a guy's leg behind her. She maneuvered her Dad so she could get at the wound in the ribs under his arm. He hissed in pain.

"Don't worry, I've got it." With that she grit her teeth and slit her wrist. It hurt, but she had learnt to be grateful for the pain.

She pressed her bloody wrist to her Dad's side, and prayed.

{ - }

By the time Peter got down there, it was mostly over. Claire was frantically searching through piles of bodies, while on the other side of camp Sylar put down the remaining survivors.

Peter searched the tents. Most were empty. Three or four down the line he found a pair of unconscious bodies, with familiar tubes sticking out from their noses.

Sylar walked into the tent behind him. Peter automatically tensed, but Sylar walked straight past him, down to a familiar boy.

Luke again. Peter was seriously starting to wonder who this kid was.

Sylar flung the kid over his shoulder again, and walked out.

Peter turned to look at the other person.

"Tracy."

He broke her handcuffs, and pulled the tube out. She blinked a bit, and he helped her sit up.

"C'mon Tracy. We're getting out of here."

He followed Sylar out, and went to find Claire. Sylar had dumped Luke, who was unsteadily getting to his feet. Overhead, helicopters began to arrive.

{ - }

Her Dad was still unconscious. There was too much blood, her arm had healed twice now, she didn't know whose blood was whose. He wasn't waking up. She'd never done this herself before, she didn't know how long it would take, but surely he should be better by now.

Peter grabbed her by the shoulders, and started pulling her up.

"Peter, no! I can't leave him!"

"You have too! They're coming back!"

Claire looked up at the sky, she could hear the helicopters too now.

"He'll be fine, Claire. Come on now. You've saved him, but now we have to go."

Claire nodded, and with one last look at her bloody Father, broke into a run, disappearing into the trees with Tracy and Peter.

Sylar and Luke followed.

To Be Continued...


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6

"We're not actually waiting for him are we?"

Matt sighed, reluctantly turning from Daphne to _still_ be having this conversation with Mohinder.

"Look Mohinder, I understand your issues with him. I really do. He almost killed me too, remember? But for as long as he's on our side, you can't deny that he'll be useful."

"Yes, of course. He's undefeatable at this point, which is precisely _why_ we should be getting as far away from him as we can!"

"I'm not moving Daphne until Peter and Claire get here!"

"We've bandaged her, the blood flow has stopped, she could be moved with relative safety."

"Sorry Mohinder, but I'm not moving her another inch until Peter says it's safe." With that, Matt turned back to the bed, sending comforting thoughts Daphne's way.

{ - }

Claire hadn't stopped hissing at Peter since she noticed Sylar following them.

Then Sylar had made his way to the front of the group, at which point Claire dropped to the back.

Tracy had been watching all of this, incredibly frustrated by the childishness of her companions.

Claire was now walking back by Luke, as she silently fumed.

"He's not all that bad, you know," Luke offered, awkwardly.

Claire made a scathing noise and did not say another word until they arrived at the trailer.

{ - }

Mohinder had the syringe boiled and ready to go. He was wary of using what was probably a drug syringe, but reasoned that any viruses or harmful bacteria would be canceled out by the incredible healing power of Claire's blood.

The trailer was vastly over crowded by this point, so Peter sent all but himself, Mohnider, Matt, Daphne and Claire out to join Sylar and Luke, who hadn't particularly wanted to come in anyway.

While Peter was extracting Claire's blood, Mohinder pulled Tracy aside.

"Look, watch out for Sylar, he's - "

"I know, he was at PineHearst." She said, dismissively. Mohinder was totally and utterly baffled by these people's undaunted reactions to Sylar.

"Okay," he grabbed her arm as she brushed past him, "Just don't let him see or know of your ability."

"I can handle it." She said, with finality. Why did everyone but him casually wave off Sylar's threat?

Mohinder turned to watch with the others as Claire's blood rushed through Daphne's veins.

It still amazed him, what some of these people could do.

{ - }

It was very awkward outside the trailer.

Sylar stood alone, a few feet from the door, not really paying attention to the others around him.

They were all paying very close attention to him though.

Luke was in one of the plastic chairs, slowly melting the arm rests off, hoping not to be caught and told off again. Tracy had walked around to the right of the trailer, partly to get away from that Ando person's quite creepy stares, but mostly to keep watch.

And, okay, maybe a little to keep from having her head sawed open.

Hiro and Ando had drifted more to the left of the trailer. Hiro kept his eyes intently on Sylar, maybe trying to think of a conversation starter, maybe hoping to at least be able to give a seconds warning when Sylar decided to attack.

So everyone was startled when the door swung open.

{ - }

"How is Daphne?" Hiro asked immediately, as Peter came down the stairs.

"Much better. She's just sleeping now." Peter said, grinning. Next came Matt, still profusely thanking Claire, who was also smiling. Mohinder came last, shutting the door behind him, scowling straight at Sylar.

"Okay, people," began Peter, naturally taking lead. Nathan wasn't the only one in the family who could get people to listen to him, "here's what we've gotta do."

Everyone wandered over to the table. Sylar shoved Luke's feet to the ground.

"Matt drew these, so far one of them has come true," Peter continued as Mohinder passed around Matt's sketches.

It was almost funny, Peter thought, watching how everyone orientated themselves so Sylar had a whole side of the table to himself. Hiro was the only one brave enough to pass the sheets along to Sylar.

"You can draw the future?"

Matt's eyes widened. "Uh, yeah."

"How?"

"I don't know, it just started happening a few days ago."

Matt was suddenly sure that Sylar was staring at his forehead.

"I wonder how that works," he said, almost to himself.

"Okay, that's enough I think," said Mohinder, "I say it's time we figure out just _why_ the murdering psychopath is still here. Anyone agree?"

"Oh, Mohinder. Surely you've heard the saying. The enemy of my enemy is - "

"I am _not_ your friend!" Mohinder snapped, one finger right up in Sylar's face.

"Well I was only going to say tentative allies," said Sylar, throwing his hands up in a mock surrender.

"We're not your allies, either, Sylar." Said Claire. "I will never work with you!"

"Okay, okay, guys. Let's take a vote," suggested Peter.

"Okay, sound's good!" Said Hiro, soothingly, while Ando nodded by his side.

"_He_ doesn't get a vote though." Said Mohinder, nodding at Sylar.

"What makes you all so sure I want to join your little band anyway?"

"That's fine with me, I don't want you here anyway!"

"Guys, we need to work together so-"

"A hero's path takes him-"

"If everybody could-"

"I don't-"

"SHUT UP!" The voices stopped, everyone turning shocked faces to Tracy.

"Look, while you're all here bickering, they are getting closer and closer to finding us. Like it or not, we're all stuck in this mess together. It's join or die. No one will get away from this by themselves. So, Peter, shall we vote?"

"Uh, yeah. Okay. Mohinder?"

"No. Absolutely not." Mohinder said with conviction.

Peter nodded understandingly and turned to Matt. "Sorry Mohinder, I just think it's better to have him where we can see him rather than just knowing he's out there somewhere in the forest."

"Hiro?"

"I do not think that we can trust him. But sometimes a Hero must compromise with evil for the greater good."

Peter turned to Ando.

"Oh! No offence. But I think we all know how he's voting."

"I agree with Hiro." Said Ando, slightly shamefaced.

Mohinder threw up his arms. Matt slapped his shoulder placatingly.

"Claire?"

"No. We can't let him. You can't trust him, Peter!"

"Sorry Claire, it's settled."

Mohinder wandered away from the group. Matt gave them all a reassuring smile and followed after.

Peter turned awkwardly to Sylar.

"What, so I don't get a vote then?" said Luke, from his chair.

"No." Said Sylar.

"Who are you, anyway?" asked quite a few people.

"I'm with the Serial Killer," said Luke.

{ - }

They'd get a few hours more sleep, then move out just before dawn.

One thousand miles away, Nathan Petrelli dialed his Mom.

**A/N** – Ugh, so it really sucks having them all together in one place. Let me know if I've accidentally abandoned someone in the forest somewhere lol. I've tried to keep them In Character, but I'm kind of worried about that. Did I fail?

I haven't actually read the graphic novels, so any details mentioned in them are going to be ignored, because I just don't know anything about them.

I really appreciate everyone who reads and reviews, but Silverhelix, you might just be my favorite person on the internet = )

(I edited this one because I just couldn't stand that second to last bit. So it's gone now. And I should update again properly sometime this evening. )


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7

By the time the sun rose over the Arkansas landscape, Daphne was back. She was completely healed, and back up to full speed.

There was a road about 8 miles East of them, she'd said. Follow the road up and out of this damn forest and they'd hit a motel. No suspicious black vans parked anywhere either. Matt had asked about security cameras, Daphne had said that it didn't seem like the type of place to bother.

Well, it wasn't like any of them were going to be mugged now was it.

So they'd started walking.

Peter was leading the way, surprisingly enough with Sylar walking at his left hand side.

He didn't speak, which was certainly new. Peter was so use to that taunting, singsong note of glee in Sylar's voice, which usually meant he was actually going to kill you this time.

The silence wasn't unwelcome.

It was so… bizarre, looking at the dark and frankly incredibly dangerous man who walked beside him, and remembering the version of this man who had actually hugged him. Who had cared for a son, and had been called Gabriel.

Sylar noticed Peter's staring.

"What?"

"Nothing."

{ - }

"Mohinder, Sylar is going to eat my brain!"

"What?"

"He's literally back there thinking about how jucy it would be!!"

"Juicy, wait, so he actually eats them…"

"Well he didn't actually say juicy, just that…"

"Oh, because I'm beginning to think that-"

"_Mohinder!_ What the _fuck_ am I gonna do?!"

"Right, is he going to attack now?"

"No. He's controlling himself. That's why he keeps tripping Claire." Matt tilted his head in a way Mohinder easily recognized, "it sort of, I dnno, soothes him I guess, watching her heal. Reminds him about the powers he already has."

That made sense. He'd been beginning to wonder what was wrong with the girl.

A little way a head Claire, again, tripped over thin air and jumped back up with a snarl, turning back to Sylar. "STOP THAT YOU PSYCOPATHIC - "

"Hey, hey, hey, easy. What's going on?" Peter asked the group. Luke was containing giggles and Tracy, thoroughly fed up, just kept on walking.

"The cheerleader fell," supplied Ando.

"_He_ tripped me! You all saw! He's done it like _twelve_ times already!

"Claire, I understand I've done some bad things, but you can't keep blaming me for everything…"

Claire, speechless with rage, turned to flounce away indignantly, but tripped again over nothing. As the fight continued to escalate around them, Mohinder took Peter by the arm.

"May I have a word with you?"

"Uh, sure," Peter walked a little way off with Mohinder and a rather pale Matt, "What's up?"

"We're concerned about Sylar," said Mohinder.

"Oh, look guys. I'm just trying to pick my battles here. He's not actually hurting her-"

"No, Peter, he's been considering taking Matt's power."

Matt nodded seriously, "I can _hear_ his _thoughts_, Peter! I really think he's gonna do it! He's only going after Claire to try and stop himself from ripping my head open!"

"Well if he's distracting himself that means he doesn't want to…"

"No, Peter," said Mohinder firmly, "you have to stop this. Honestly, just listen to me. You cannot trust him."

"I'd have thought you of all people would understand. How many people did you go all Evil Spider Man on?" Mohinder looked away.

"Why are you defending him?" asked Matt.

"Look Matt, what do you want me to do? Ask him to walk a little further away from us? We're kind of stuck right now."

"So you're going to ditch him when we get to civilization?" said Mohinder.

"I don't know. He's just…"

Mohinder made an annoyed noise in his throat, and turned away.

"I'll keep listening to his thoughts, I'll try let you know a couple of minutes before he takes the top of my head off," said Matt, as he followed after Mohinder, walking over to Daphne.

Peter closed his eyes for a moment. How did it get to this point?

{ - }

Luke didn't get nervous around girls. In school he had mostly just ignored them. They ignored him too. It was a mutual system, where he didn't have to deal with stupid High School bitches who think that it's funny to invite him to homecoming and then show up with freaking Adam Sloan.

So he didn't have much experience talking to girls. Except when he was going out of his way to make them cry. And that wasn't quite what he was going for here.

Not that this really counted as Talking To A Girl. That, to Luke, seemed mostly like when a guy awkwardly creeps up on a girl in the library with the intention of eventually sleeping with her. Right now they were just both fleeing from the Government.

But she was a girl, and he was attempting to start a conversation, "so that should count anyway, right?"

"What?" asked Claire.

"Fuck," said Luke.

"Are you okay?"

"Great. And you?"

"I'm alright."

"Cool." Luke shoved himself into a mental gym locker.

"So you heal?" Luke said at the exact same moment that Claire said,

"So you're with Sylar?"

"What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, you go."

"Oh, okay. You heal then."

"Yeah. And you melt airplanes."

Luke made a hopefully amused noise.

"Yup. I'm good like that."

"You sure are."

They lapsed into silence after that. Luke was actually grateful when Sylar tripped them both.

{ - }

"So, let me just get this straight. You're going to go in there, book a room for ten people, and expect him to not act like we're having some kind of orgy?" said Daphne, once they had finally arrived at their seedy little roadside motel.

"Well what do we do when housekeeping finds us tomorrow morning and calls the police?" asked Peter, irritated.

"Oh Peter, a true Petrelli. You think this place cleans its rooms? This is the kind of place where a body won't be found until the next tenant breaks in," said Sylar.

A considerably awkward moment followed his statement, where the rest of the group was very aware of how he probably knew this.

Finally Matt spoke, "Daphne's right. This isn't the sort of place that wants cops digging around either."

"Okay, so let's just break in then," said Tracy.

Eventually Peter's noble sensibilities were worn down by the dead tired expression on Claire's face, and Mohinder's sound logic.

"Peter," he said, " Some of us are still in bright orange jumpsuits for God's sake! How are you going to explain that? And I don't know about you, but I haven't got much cash on me. You can send a check later if you like, I'm going to go crush a doorknob and pass out. If you'll excuse me…"

It was decided that Matt and Daphne would room with Mohinder. Tracy, Claire and Peter would take another.

"And Luke can go with Hiro and Ando," finished Peter.

Sylar focused for a moment, "what, so I'm a pedophile too now?"

Claire and Tracy set off to find a room for Tracy to break into, leaving Peter to argue custody.

"That's not what I said."

"Oh, so you're just trying to limit my corrupting influence, is that it?"

"You're seriously offended? Okay, fine. Luke, go wherever you want. I'm too tired to argue at the moment."

"Cool," said Luke.

"Oh, no. You're with them," Sylar gestured at Hiro and Ando's backs, "I'm sleeping on my own."

"No way! I'm not sharing a bed with one of them!"

"If it's two doubles, I'd say you're likely to get a bed to yourself anyway."

Luke followed Sylar right into the room, arguing all the way. Peter watched as he followed them up the steps, amazed that that kid was so unafraid.

Mohinder was wrong. Peter was sure of it.

{ - }

**A/N -** Sorry about the wait. This chapter was actually really hard to write. I know exactly where I need them all to be for the next chapter, but getting them there is just excruciating! I really hope that that didn't show through very much.

I should be able to start updating more regularly again, now that I'm over the hump.

One quick thing on Mohinder. I think he has the most sensible reaction to Sylar, because he has experienced a similar sort of affect that powers can have. He was sticking people to his walls, he understands how you can get sucked into that kind of thing. This makes him the least forgiving of Sylar because he knows that it's not something you can, or even want to, control. This is what makes Sylar so much more dangerous. A normal killer could just control his blood lust until their little truce was over with, but Sylar works differently. Mohinder, in my mind, is the only one who really gets that.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8

Nathan Petrelli was reaching the height of his five day migraine. They'd cleared the crash site, but they hadn't recovered any living prisoners. Danko was combing the forests around the area, but they were beginning to hit towns in almost every direction. As they were unable to reasonably subpoena hotel records looking for any men and women with superhuman abilities, and they kept running into gas station attendants who - unwilling to admit to sleeping through their shifts - "Didn't see no one."

It was like a living nightmare.

Bennet was spitting bullets at anyone who mentioned Claire, so naturally Danko was mentioning Claire in every one of his morning briefings. Bennet had started standing next to Danko at every opportunity and pointedly looking down at the man when he spoke. Danko knew exactly what he was doing, and so made a point of mentioning Claire's 'sweet spot' at least once a day. Bennet had started throwing around phrases like, "men of your stature," and the like. Nathan had told his Mother, but she'd only told him that he should buy them an ice cream each to distract them, like she use to do with him and Peter.

"Peter. Your younger brother. You do remember, don't you?"

So he had an irate Governor of Arkansas on line one, he was on hold with the White House on line two and Bennet and Danko were glaring daggers outside his office when his cell phone rang.

"Petrelli." He said, distractedly, still looking around his desk for that one paper.

"Nathan, it's me." He stopped searching, he stopped moving, hell he stopped breathing for a moment.

"Tracy."

{ - }

[_earlier that day_]

The sun was barley rising when Peter started the wake up calls. He had to be careful not to be seen as he slipped from one room to the next, informing certain people that they were having a meeting in room 103.

He'd timed it so Claire was having what would probably become a forty-five minute bath – to be fair there was a lot of blood to wash out of her hair – and Luke was still sound asleep.

"It's dawn," Matt had commented, "what else do you want the poor kid to do?"

"Teenagers," Sylar said in the sarcastic voice of a long-suffering parent.

So Matt, Mohinder, Tracy, Hiro, Ando, Daphne and Peter met in Sylar's room.

Mohinder had, naturally, complained about Sylar's presence, but either he was getting less passionate or Peter was paying less attention to his indignant squawks of fury.

"So what's the next move?" Tracy asked Peter.

Peter had, luckily because they were all watching him expectantly, been thinking about this.

"I think we've gotta go on the offensive. If we keep running we'll get trapped eventually. I say we go after Bennet."

"You want to run straight to them?" said Ando.

"Not to them, to Bennet. He has all the information we need to take down these guys."

"We're going to take on the US Government? The seven of us?" said Tracy.

"Or we run and hide for the rest of our lives, yeah."

Mohinder was rustling papers.

"Matt also drew this. It's us, I think, with guns. I think Peter's right. Everything else Matt's drawn has come true anyway."

"Hiro and I have to go to India then?" said Ando.

"Looks like it," said Peter, inspecting the picture.

"How do we do that? I cannot teleport."

"I worked in Law Enforcement, believe me you'll get picked up if you even try and book a flight right now, for sure."

"I can take them," said Daphne.

Matt argued this point for close to ten minutes. Daphne tiptoed around telling him outright that his overprotectiveness was more annoying than touching. Then he wanted to go with them. Daphne didn't mention that Matt weighed about the same as Hiro and Ando combined, just the two would be easy, no way could she take the three of them across an ocean.

"Okay, so you three go to India, and then you should probably return to Japan. Hiro, Ando, if you have family, or a house somewhere. Low profile, they won't even know you've gone back, hopefully."

This set off another argument, conducted partly between Hiro and Ando in Japanese, where Hiro refused to run and hide while Ando thought up instances where comic book heroes had to strategically retreat for a while. Eventually they settled on discussing the matter further once they had fulfilled their destiny in India.

"How are you going to find him?" said Sylar, randomly from the corner he'd been skulking in.

"Who?"

"Bennet." Sylar had a gleam in his eye that Mohinder didn't like.

"He lives in Costa Verde. You know that," said Peter.

"Well he was in Arkansas a few days ago. I doubt he's going to be doing a crossword in his living room when we show up. He could be hunting anyone anywhere."

"Don't even say it Sylar!" said Mohinder.

"The Walker Tracking System may need to be called out of retirement."

"No. I am not dragging Molly into this!" said Mohinder.

"We'll just have to figure something else out," said Matt.

"Alright. I just wanted to point that out before it becomes a problem."

"Using Molly is already a problem, Sylar."

Sylar just shrugged.

"We'll deal with that later, okay?" said Peter.

"So let me get this straight," said Tracy, "the plan is for those three to run to India, and the rest of us go to California to kidnap a man, and what, torture information out of him? Then go run into whatever trap he's sent us to, while we try and shut down a Presidentially backed operation?"

"Yeah," said Peter grinning.

"You're all insane."

{ - }

Ando shouldn't really have been surprised when Hiro took it upon himself to be Sylar's parole officer. What else would Hiro do when confronted with a super powered serial killer? So it seemed natural for Hiro to spend most of their trek spying on Sylar from behind trees. Ando didn't like it, but who else was he going to walk with?

What was weird was how Sylar seemed to be watching them right back.

"You know he can probably catch you now that you can't teleport anymore," Ando had pointed out in Japanese.

Hiro had swallowed nervously, "I know. But he has no reason to while I'm powerless."

"You hope." Ando said, dourly.

Hiro hadn't replied.

And now they had returned to their room only to find him watching their TV.

Ando's heart skipped three or four beats. He almost died right then and there, which, he thought hysterically, would save Sylar the trouble of even lifting his finger.

"Sylar," said Hiro, automatically reaching for his sword, only to find it missing – probably in a draw somewhere in their offices back in Tokyo - and then awkwardly covering by scratching the back of his neck.

Sylar muted the TV but didn't get off the bed.

"Do you remember the first time you met me? At that Diner in Texas?"

"Yes! You killed Charlie!" said Hiro, and they moved toward the window a little. Hoping to stay near the door without it being painfully obvious. Ando thought that it probably was anyway, but he wasn't particularly concerned for Sylar's feelings at that point.

"Actually I didn't. I suppose you haven't got back yet." Sylar stood, actually really really tall now that they were in a room together.

"You told me that I was going to die alone."

"I did?" Said Hiro.

"I am sure he did not mean it." Supplied Ando.

"You told me I would be powerful but completely alone. No one mourns. That eventually people even forget."

"Why would you say that?" said Ando in Japanese.

"I don't know!" said a quite wide-eyed Hiro.

"Well, since you haven't gone back yet, and I have clearly not died, I can't get my answers from you."

Both Hiro's and Ando's shoulders dropped a fraction.

"You met a Future Hiro?" asked Hiro.

"Did he have a sword?" asked Ando.

"No."

"Are you sure?" Serious Future Hiro meant Ando was dead. It was natural for Ando to want to be sure.

"The sword that you ran through my chest? No, I think I would have noticed it."

"Stop talking about the sword," said Hiro in Japanese again. Ando suddenly wondered if they bothered people with their side conversations.

"But, ah," Hiro paused, unsure about how to address the man he'd always just called Brain Man. Hiro felt like maybe that wouldn't be okay right now. "Mr. Sylar, I do not have my powers. I cannot go back in time and tell you anything."

"It looks like you're going to recover then."

And that was where they were when they heard the helicopters.

{ - }

Claire was sitting on her bed, facing the wall, just staring. She wasn't looking at anything, just thinking, absorbing the events of the last few days. She hadn't had a free moment until now, the since escaping from Mrs. Petrelli's watchful eyes she'd been running on instinct and following others. It was all so… _much_.

"Hey uh, Tracy, could you give us a minute?" Said Peter quietly.

"What?" Peter nodded at Claire's forlorn figure, "sure. I'll be outside."

Peter moved over so he was standing by Claire's side.

"Hey. You okay?" He asked. She jumped when he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah. I'm okay." Peter sat beside her on the bed, " I just… don't know what to _do_."

"Well you don't have to worry about that. You've got us, we're all here, and we're taking care of everything. Trying to anyway."

"I know. It's just my _Dad_, you know? He's hunting us down, Nathan's the one setting the whole thing up, and now you. You're making friends with Sylar! I just…don't know who I'm supposed to trust."

Peter was quiet for a few moments.

"I don't know what I can say to convince you that I'm on your side. Your Dad - I don't know either. He's complicated, and he probably has his reasons," he caught the look on her face, "not that that excuses anything, but there's a lot of sides to every story. And Nathan's just confused right now." Claire scoffed, "Oh, not that I'm not mad as hell."

Claire wiped a tear off her recently clean cheek.

"And Sylar?"

"I just feel like I have to give him this chance. I understand how dangerous he is, all I have to do is look at you and I'm reminded of all the awful things he's done, but… you didn't see him Claire. The person he _could_ be. It's incredible, and I feel like if I push him away we'll loose that person."

"Okay Peter. I won't forgive him, but I can-"

Peter and Claire hadn't heard the helicopters, they'd been too absorbed in their conversation. Then their wall exploded, showering them in drywall. Peter instinctively flung himself over Claire. When the dust cleared Sylar was standing in the hole, Hiro and Ando following him through.

"We have to go," said Sylar.

Then Peter first noticed the helicopters.

{ - }

Mohinder followed Daphne and Matt back to their little room. Matt slipped into the bathroom to sulk about being excluded from the trip to India. Mohinder approached Daphne.

"I was wondering if I might ask you a favor?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Matt has told you about Molly, hasn't he?"

"The little girl you guys had awhile back. Sure."

"Right. Well she's in India, living with my Mother. I was wondering if I could convince you to take a detour while you're there anyway."

"To go see Molly? No problem. What's the message?"

"If you could explain my situation to my Mother, and ask her to take Molly to our summer home. And please tell Molly that-"

"That you love her. Alright, gimme the address."

"Thank you, I really appreciate this Daphne. Now, I will call my Mother's house once, three days from now at approximately ten in the evening. With time difference, you should expect the call at eleven in the morning."

"Eleven AM, three days from now. Got it."

Matt emerged from the bathroom, where Mohinder assumed he'd been listening the whole time.

"Do you guys hear that?" He asked.

"Helicopters."

{ - }

Tracy stepped outside her room onto the balcony. She didn't care if the owner caught her. She didn't intend to spend another night in this roach infested hole.

Luke was also leaning on the railing a little way down from her. He was, predictably, melting it.

"Sucks being the ones nobody talks to, doesn't it," he said, bitterly.

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should talk."

"I don't think so kid." She walked away, down the stairs and toward the parking lot.

"Bitch," muttered Luke. Then he went over to the vending machine to see if he could get a free soda.

He was still trying to melt a correctly sized hole in front of what was hopefully a Dr. Pepper when the helicopters came.

{ - }

**A/N** – I hadn't forgotten about Peter's time with Sylar's power. I think that's a big part of why he's behaving like he is, but he's not willing to admit it to other people yet.

And the rest of Tracy's conversation with Nathan went very similarly to the one she had with him in the show. Except where she says, "I have Peter" in my world she says something like, "I have everyone you could possibly need right now to save the smoking wreck that is your career."

Acceptable?


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9

Peter pulled their curtains shut, the small cramped room was thrown into darkness.

Sirens blared in the parking lot.

"You guys find Daphne!" yelled Peter. Hiro nodded.

Sylar blasted a hole in the opposite wall.

"Peter! Let's go!"

Claire felt Peter shoving her through the gap first, then he and Sylar followed.

"Have either of you seen Luke?" Sylar asked, his voice lacking a certain quality of menace, Claire noticed, as they burst through another wall, this time in the back of the room, taking them to the other side of the row of hotel rooms.

"No," said Claire, Peter shook his head.

Claire thought the bogeyman looked almost distressed for a moment.

"He's probably with Mohinder and Matt," she said encouragingly.

"Yeah, if necessary we'll meet up with them on the way to California," said Peter, "Mohinder'll leave rather than get caught waiting for us."

"I'm not coming to California. I have another project to finish up."

Sylar burst through another wall, and they emerged into another cookie cutter beige bedroom. From the sounds of the shouts their little tunnel had been discovered.

Claire felt herself start to shake. Peter grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bathroom. Sylar blew through another few walls in different directions and then followed them in.

The door closed and everyone held their breath. Claire sat on the toilet seat, she wrapped her arms around herself. Peter and Sylar were standing by the door, listening. They didn't need to be so close, even Claire could hear the rumble of running boots, the shouts as the agents jumped through hole after hole, chasing them.

Like they were hunting animals. Any second now they were going to reach the end of their rabbit hole, and start doubling back. Checking over the rooms in more detail. Opening the bathroom doors.

She was almost sick.

"Claire?" Peter whispered, "Claire, look, we're getting out of here, okay. Don't worry, okay? There's a plan."

Then he turned back to Sylar, who was looking at her with an odd expression on his face. Like he couldn't quite understand what she was doing.

"How're you going to find us?"

Sylar smiled his shark smile.

"That's never been a problem before."

"Okay, Claire? Claire come on, we've got to get ready to run, okay? You're alright to run, aren't you?"

Claire stood on shaky legs and nodded.

"Okay, into the bath, Claire."

"Why?"

"Trust me, okay?"

Claire climbed into the small bathtub in the corner. It was one of those bath and shower combos that hotels always use to save space.

"Peter," said Sylar from the door. Peter paused halfway into the bath already and looked up at Sylar, "If anything happens to him, I'm going to be very upset."

Peter nodded once and followed Claire fully in. It was a bit of a squeeze, motels rarely spring for high quality, spacious bathtubs.

"What's he doing?" Claire whispered as she heard the door creak open.

Peter held one finger up to his lips, signaling quiet, then reached down to grab her hand and squeezed.

The door slammed shut and the yelling in the room increased, there was even a spurt of gunfire.

Then the sounds began to move away, as Sylar lead them off, back the way they'd come.

Peter gripped her hand, "Let's go."

{ - }

"We have to find the speedster!" shouted Hiro over the noise of boots running in formation.

Ando nodded fervently, eyes wide.

They both dropped to the ground at the sound of gunfire. Their window exploded, glass went flying everywhere. On the floor Hiro and Ando covered their heads with their arms while shattered glass covered the room.

Hiro looked up at the little container that has just flown through the window.

"Ando. What does that mean, 'teargas?"

Ando hauled Hiro up and pulled him out through the door. They were met by half a dozen guns, pointed right at them. Men poured into the room behind them, shouting for backup.

They both put their arms up in the air. One man moved forward with his taser. For an instant, out of the corner of his eye, Hiro saw a familiar white-blonde head. Then they were moving.

"Supercharge me!"

Ando's hands sparked red, and in under a minute they were running on Indian soil.

The agent's taser charge bounced harmlessly off the wall.

{ - }

Luke was having a crappy day. First, everyone was ignoring him. Like they forgot he existed. He was still in his bright orange prison jumpsuit, because even though Peter had been through the rooms and found Claire a skirt and stuff, Sylar got a dark jacket – though he did still look dumb walking around with the orange trousers, Peter said he hadn't found anything tall enough – but nothing for Luke. Then he'd only managed to find a Pepsi Light in the freaking vending machine.

And most recently he had men in black SWAT suits barreling towards him in almost every direction, yelling at him to, "GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!"

Never one to co-operate with the authorities, and partly because he was completely frozen, Luke stayed standing. He did drop his sugar free soda though.

So they hit him with a taser.

_Then _he fell on the floor.

They surrounded him, guns pointed right in his face and one guy started pulling him up. Luke melted for all he was worth, but the guy was wearing special gloves that Luke wasn't able to burn through.

Then there was a sudden streak of color, and a very powerful gust of wind blew past him. The agents were all on the ground around him. Luke didn't think twice. He started running.

He reached the room the cop and the Indian guy had been staying in. It was the closest one, or he'd have defiantly run for Sylar. No one else really seemed able to do much in comparison.

Though the blonde chick did just save him.

He pounded on the door with his palm screaming as he watched the fallen men down the corridor start to pick themselves up.

"Let me in! It's me! It's Luke! OPEN THE DOOR!"

The door opened and the Indian guy grabbed him, and actually threw him inside. Luke landed on the bed across the room. He scrambled back up and went to stand behind the big cop who was staring at the door.

"Matt, can you do it?" asked Mohinder, from over by the door.

"I'm trying!" Matt said, "There's too many!"

Mohinder moved away from the door for a second, "Luke, do you know where Peter and the others are?"

Luke shook his head.

The door crashed open, three agents, guns ready, surged inside.

"_This room is empty_," said Matt, a constipated look of concentration on his face, "_There is no one inside the room. LEAVE!_"

"Oh my God," breathed Luke in awe as the men turned and left through the door, dazedly.

"Good, Matt," said Mohinder, securing the door once again.

Matt reached up and wiped the flow of blood from his nose.

"Thanks."

{ - }

The plan, beyond Sylar heading them all off, had been simple. Get Claire to safety, meet up in California.

They'd had less than thirty seconds and it had seemed pretty good at the time. Once Sylar had set off to do what he does best – creating havoc – Peter was faced with the challenge of filling in the blank bits of their plan.

In retrospect he didn't know why he thought a mad dash would work. What, was he going to sprint through the parking lot and somehow outrun the small army waiting outside? In the best imaginable outcome, he woulsd somehow manage to find the others in the wilderness barley contained on either side of the highway?

What actually happened was something out of his Mother's most cynical nightmares.

Pulling Claire behind him, Peter had dashed out of their little bathroom, stumbled over the bodies left in Sylar's wake and literally slammed right into Danko's chest three doorways down.

All three of them fell, and in later retellings Peter would transfer Claire's shrill squeak of surprise to Danko. That was later of course, at the time Peter still didn't know quite who he was dealing with.

By the time Peter got his feet back underneath him Danko was already standing. He had one arm around Claire's neck, holding her back close to his chest and a gun to the back of her head.

Claire was struggling, both of her hands clawing at his armor coated forearm, but his grip was unrelenting.

Peter stood slowly, both of his arms up, palms out.

"Peter, run! My Dad'll _squash_ him if he does anything!" Claire hissed.

"I'm not leaving you, Claire," said Peter, edging closer.

"I'm afraid you are," said Danko, and with that turned the gun and shot Peter three times in the chest.

"PETER!" Claire screamed, throwing the weight of her whole body against Danko's arms in an effort to get to him. He always managed to get hurt protecting her!

"Claire," Danko almost whispered, into her ear. She froze, listening, "You're Dad's not here right now."

Claire opened her mouth, most likely to scream again and Danko shot her, right in that unlucky spot in the back of her head.

He didn't bother to catch her body, so she dropped to the floor, almost hitting the TV as she fell, landing perpendicular to Petrelli.

There was a stillness in death that Danko found he quite enjoyed.

Not that Petrelli was dead, Danko mused as he wiped bloody pieces of Claire's head off of the side of his face. He'd seem Petrelli's head heal itself. Probably cut it when they'd crashed.

He was watching Petrelli's chest sew itself back together, admittedly quite fascinated, when his radio exploded into desperate pleas.

Danko rolled his eyes. _You want something done right…_

{ - }

Mohinder stood, surrounded by fife or six unconscious bodies.

Matt had lost too much blood for a nosebleed and was no longer capable of keeping ten people from entering a room, or sending that same group of ten to sleep.

So while several retreated, radioing for backup, Mohinder took the rest out the old fashioned way.

He stood behind a door with a heavy object. In this particular case, he chose the Television.

"We've got to get out of here," he said.

"No kidding," said Luke.

Matt made a nasal sound of agreement from where he was holding his head back and plugging his nose.

Mohinder figured he could trust Peter to have gotten himself and the others out. He was at the point of choosing between Mad Dash For Freedom, which he thought might work, and continuing their doomed siege when the five or six radios strapped to the five or six unconscious bodies at his feet erupted.

"We need back up!"

"All available personnel-"

"Anyone know where Danko is?"

"Oh my God! He's-"

"Aarrrugh!"

"Quiet on the line! What's going on?"

Obviously a superior, Mohinder figured. Danko most likely.

There was a pause.

"You gotta get up here sir. We're-"

"Up where?"

"The roof, second story, East wing."

A heard of black clad SWAT people stampeded past Mohinder's window, not even noticing anyone in the room.

"I'll be right there. Send Simmons to room 202. I've got Petrelli and Bennet's girl."

"Sir, Simmon's isn't-"

"Then you come!"

"Yessir!"

Mohinder looked over at Matt, who had stopped holding his nose and was now letting blood drip down his face while he stared at the radios.

"Peter's still here," said Mohinder.

"We've gotta go get him!"

"And Claire!" said Luke. Matt raised an eyebrow at the teen's sudden chivalry.

"202, that's five rooms down from here."

"Are we just going to run for it?"

"They'll catch us!"

Outside the helicopter that had been circling, checking the surrounding area for escapees, made a sharp right turn and careened straight into the building.

"I don't think they'll notice us actually."

{ - }

Peter woke up with a gasp.

"Claire!"

"She's not here." Peter swiveled around, startled to find Mohinder crouched behind him.

There was a lot of blood on the floor.

Peter ran his hands over his chest. No bullet holes.

"You healed, thanks, I suppose, to Claire."

Peter took in more of the room. There was an unconscious man in the corner, too big to be the guy who shot him. Matt was by the window, looking out sideways through the curtains. Luke was sitting on the bed clutching a radio, listening to someone barking orders.

"Guys, we gotta get out of here," said Matt, "Sylar's good, but we can't have much more time."

"Sylar?" said Peter, getting to his feet.

"Yes. As far as we can tell, he's up on the roof playing conkers with the helicopters." Peter could have sworn Mohinder was almost smiling.

"We can't leave him!" said Luke.

Matt reached over and gently took the radio from the boy's hands. He turned the volume down; cutting off someone urgently calling, "fire at will! Fire! _Shoot him_!"

"What about Claire?" said Peter.

Neither Mohinder nor Matt met his eyes.

"We can't just leave her here!" Peter insisted.

"Look, Peter," said Mohinder, "I hate to leave her here too, but we're in no position to mount a rescue."

"Besides," added Matt, "she's probably downstairs arguing with her Dad right now. She's fine. Free pass, remember?"

Peter had to admit defeat.

"By the way Peter, where's Tracy?" said Mohinder, suddenly looking around like he just noticed that she wasn't there.

Peter also gave the room a once over, just in case Mohinder missed her.

"I dunno. I figured she was with you guys."

"Oh," said Mohinder, "we thought she was with you."

"Look, I like her just fine, but we all know she probably ran for it the second these guys showed up," said Matt, gesturing with his thumb to the small war zone down in the parking lot, "which is a really good idea, by the way."

"Yes, we have to go now Peter."

"Yeah, okay."

The three of them headed for the door.

"You guys go ahead. I'm waiting for Sylar," said Luke, stubbornly from his place on the bloody bed cover.

"No, you're not," said Peter.

"Yeah, I am," said Luke, digging his heals in like any good teenager would.

"Look, I talked to Sylar. He volunteered to lead all them off on the condition that I got you safely out of this place. We've arranged to meet up in California, okay? So you're coming, or he'll probably kill me. Now let's go."

{ - }

Tracy had been secured to a chair in an uncomfortably warm compartment in the back of a truck, complete with rattling chains and some nice thick gloves within two minutes of the squad's arrival.

She was thoroughly pissed off, and quite humiliated.

Nathan had come to see her, later. Just before the hood went over her eyes, he crouched in front of her little chair, smiling condescendingly.

"I'm sorry Tracy, you know how it is. I can't report back from a raid this size with no prisoner."

"But you have Claire!"

"Unfortunately Claire has been on an extended tour of east coast colleges this past week."

The last thing she saw before entering that familiar chemically induced state of blissful unawareness was his stupid slimy politician's grin.

"You're one of us, Nathan!" She yelled with the last of her strength, "You're one of us!"

{ - }

Sylar was outnumbered. Irritating, but true.

So, for reasons he wouldn't adequately be able to explain later, he jumped off the roof.

He'd fallen further and walked away fine, even before he could heal.

The problem was that first of all he'd landed terribly. Having your spine snap was actually more painful than being shot.

The second problem was that while he was twisting his legs back around someone short, bald and angry plunged a knife into the back of his head.

The last thing Sylar knew was his ego throwing an absolute hissy fit as the world quickly faded to black.

{ - }

Gary Jacobson, owner of the smoking remains of what was once a roadside motel, was in a state of shock.

Bush wouldn't of let terrorists get in his hotel!

To Be Continued…

**A/N - ** Double digit chapters. Yay.

By the way, in one more episode's worth of time I'll have reached the end of what I've planned out. After that it's basically open, except for a couple of major things. So if any one has any ideas or situations they think would be interesting to see, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks so much for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

They'd hitched a ride with Stereotypical Trucker Dude A. Seventy miles an hour along deserted freeways got them to Santa Fe, New Mexico in less than twenty-four hours.

It was actually a genuine miracle, what with Parkman's bloody face, the sprinkling of bullet holes across Peter's bloody shirt and Luke's incredibly dirty orange jumpsuit, that anyone had pulled over at all.

Stereotypical Trucker Dude A – Luke didn't bother learning the name – was a cool enough guy. Way too into the Beach Boys – _GodFuckingDamn _Barbara Ann for fifteen hours! – but overall alright. He mostly seemed pleased for the company.

Of course he wasn't aware that Parkman had spent the first three hours waiting for a stray thought about murdering the four of them on a deserted strip of highway in the middle of some desert. As if _they_ were in any danger from some overweight hillbilly.

Mohinder coughed from the front seat. Luke had noticed him doing this a lot. Not a sick cough, he was just doing it for the noise.

No one had spoken for an hour and a half.

Luke shifted in his seat, unable to properly stretch out, squashed into the middle seat between Parkman and Peter.

More like him and Peter were squashed between Parkman and the window.

Parkman glared at him.

That was the worst part of it all. Five hours silently listening to the Beach Boys and he couldn't even loose himself in morose thoughts, because Parkman would hear him. That left Luke physically and mentally uncomfortable.

"Look, I'm sorry okay, but I can't turn it off," said Parkman from embarrassingly far above Luke's own head.

The Trucker looked in his rear-view mirror, concerned.

Parkman grinned at him – totally harmless.

"I know, right," Parkman said in Peter's direction.

Luke shifted again. One-piece prison uniforms – seriously uncomfortable. Even before you cover it in a week's worth of grime. Luke had never been a particularly hygienic boy, but this just felt gross.

Parkman was digging around in the mess spread across the entire truck. There were fast food receipts, old empty cups, and what looked like ipod earphones over there on the floor.

Parkman uncrumpled an old receipt and dug a pencil out of one of the cup holders and started to scribble.

Luke and Peter watched him; Peter had to lean forwards to see across Luke.

Suresh spared a glance from the front seat, but couldn't look for long – Trucker Dude started up on his rambling life story again. With a resigned glare, Suresh turned his attention back towards their driver and made appropriately interested noises at the correct intervals.

Parkman flourished the paper in Luke's face.

He'd set up a game of Hang Man.

_No way_.

Parkman nodded, waving the paper around.

Peter was grinning.

Matt shook his head and wrote a little A below the base of the gallows.

Peter looked at the five little blank spaces thoughtfully.

Matt cheerfully added an E to the second space.

Luke leaned as far as he could into the back of the worn leather chair while Parkman added to the little drawing as Peter finished out the vowels without luck.

Wait, never mind, Parkman scratched something out and added an O to the second to last space.

_ E _ O _

In the front Suresh was listening attentively as Trucker Dude described his difficulty breaking into the wrestling industry.

Luke had been trying so hard to make himself go to sleep, but he just couldn't manage it in the back seat of a truck without squashed between two grown men. Especially now that they were silently playing Hangman.

Next time Luke looked the gallows were built and the guy had an arm. Peter had only added an N to the end of the word.

_Lemon_, Luke thought without being able to help himself.

Parkman filled the rest of it in, grinning at Luke. Peter clapped him on the shoulder. Luke rolled his eyes and tried to lean away from the both of them.

{ - }

7 hours of straight driving later – interrupted only by one roadside bathroom break – Peter, Parkman and Suresh were asleep. Luke had been, until Parkman shifted away from the window so his head and considerable weight now lay over Luke's shoulder.

Luke tried to shove the larger man off, but no luck. Maybe he'd move if Luke melted him a bit…

He'd probably wake up too.

Not worth it, Luke decided.

{ - }

Truck drivers can only drive for a certain number of hours per day, so they ended up at a rest stop along a highway, barley three feet across the California border.

Trucker Dude had a room all set up for himself already, "but Maggie – the manager of that Denny's over there – hardly has anyone working the clean up, because of how many migrant workers come through here."

Matt seriously impressed Maggie with his incredible knack for guessing what the customers want to order - a waiter called in sick - Luke busses tables and Peter and Mohinder clean dishes and end up unclogging that toilet in the men's room.

They don't get much money for it. Actually the experience convinces Luke that he really does want to get his diploma because No Way is he putting up with all that crap another night in his whole life. Mohinder complains of what he calls exploitation. Maggie says sorry, she can give them a proper wage, but first she'd need to officially employ them. Can she please see their driver's licenses?

They left pretty soon after that.

One barley worth it dinner shift over with, they check in to the motel on the other side of the deserted highway.

Luke's a born and raised city boy. Even at night the landscape in this bit of the country astounds him. He's never been this far west. He spent most of the drive over staring around Parkman's girth at the huge cacti, and wondering at how flat the whole thing was, with these random spurts of rock sticking out like big boxes on the horizon.

There's so many stars too.

Right now though, Luke's far too tired to give a damn about the effects of light pollution.

The motel lobby isn't air-conditioned and the desk clerk is half way through his dinner when they enter.

Parkman shuffles awkwardly. Luke notices the guy defiantly giving them A Look, as three grown men check in to one hotel room with a kid who may or may not actually be eighteen.

Even Peter and Suresh look a bit uncomfortable and Luke takes a moment to notice just how bad they look.

It's pretty bad.

Maggie had some spare Denny's shirts for them all, so Peter and Matt's dried and crusted bloody shirts are covered up. They all washed their faces for about a half hour in the bathroom – peeling off two days worth of grime, but their hair's all matted, Peter's still with some blood.

And Luke's still wearing his fucking jumpsuit of course.

They must look like they just survived a horror movie.

Luckily the guy doesn't question it.

Although a few hours later when Luke emerges to find some more towels – Parkman managed to soak two during his shower – he gets a concerned, "Are you doing okay, son?"

Luke tells the guy to mind his own damn business and returns to the room towel-less.

He wishes Sylar were here.

The whole night is a nightmare. Peter tells him off about the towels for a few minutes, then goes and gets a bunch himself. Parkman and Suresh get in a dumb argument because Parkman wants the TV on, and Luke gets saddled with the tiny couch because there are only two beds and he's the only one small enough "to sleep on the couch comfortably." Well it's not fucking comfortable and Peter's not that much bigger than him anyway.

Then they spend like an hour arguing about who sleeps on the floor, all three of them claiming that the other two should take the beds, when it's pretty clear that all of them want to.

In the end Peter 'wins' and makes himself a nest on the floor, perpendicular to the two beds and so his head ends up level with Luke's.

If Sylar were here he'd have killed them all twice already.

{ - }

It's quiet now. Quiet and dark and Luke can't really stop it all from catching up. This is the first real down time he's had, and it feels like everything that's happened is crashing down on him.

Luke really hopes Sylar catches up with them soon. Not just because he's so fucking sick of the boy scouts already.

Luke knows he has no real connection to Sylar. That there's no real reason for him to come back at all. He hates himself for being so pathetic about it.

Claire too. Luke knows it's dumb, but he got use to her really quickly. He hopes she got away okay.

"Hey Peter," Parkman whispers in the dark.

"Mmmh?" Peter replies groggily, from somewhere below Luke's head.

"The healing factor thing, it's pretty powerful, right?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, it basically brought you back to life earlier."

"Yeah," said Peter again, unenthusiastically.

"So, no matter what happened, Claire's fine. No reason to worry, right?"

"Nah, she's even died before."

"Her Father told me that she survived a small nuclear explosion once," added Mohinder, from the further bed.

"Wow. So her and Sylar are fine right?"

"Sylar's a goddamn cockroach-homing pigeon," said Peter, sounding more awake now, "They probably beat us to California."

"I'm not a five year old," snapped Luke, "I'm not worried. So shut up."

"Okay, sorry," said Matt.

"Good night," said Mohinder.

Peter mumbled something.

Luke refused to even _think_ about being reassured.

{ - }

Breakfast isn't included, so they have to spend the rest of their money at the Denny's across the road. Matt doesn't even become human again until his second cup of black, sugar filled coffee. Mohinder spends a full half hour hogging the bathroom in the morning, and for a New York City EMC Peter is really hard to wake up.

Luke doesn't do anything but cuss until they get back into the truck, when he promptly goes back to sleep, and stays that way until they get to Trucker Dude's final destination. By that point it's past 1pm, so Luke is just about ready to start his day.

From here it's just going to be a horrifically long walk across town to Claire's.

Peter gets Trucker Dude's home address with the sincere promise to send money. Trucker doesn't seem to believe him, but Luke's pretty sure that if Peter can ever access his bank accounts again, it's probably the first thing he's going to do.

Mohinder looks the most well kept of the four of them. His clothes are dirty, sure, but he's the only one not covered in blood or wearing a prison jumpsuit. So they send him in to get a room at a nice, cheap, Costa Verde motel. According to Peter it should only be a half hour from Claire's neighborhood.

They made it in time. There's just a few hours left until Suresh has to call that girl Daphne.

The other three are all very tense. No one can relax. This phone call is a crucial part of the plan, Mohinder explains. This call decides if their whole cross-country trip was in vain.

Luke is going to be so fucking pissed off if Claire's Dad isn't home.

{ - }

**A/N - **I'm not even going to bother commenting on how long it's been since I updated. Sorry.

This chapter was hard for me because I really wanted to show what happens between scenes. In the show the characters cross continents in the space of seconds. We're never shown how they get there, or the situations that arise. I understand why, but it's still something I wonder about. And I adore those scenes in Season 1 where HRG, Matt and Ted are traveling together.

So sorry if this one was boring, but I was just trying to show that while them getting to California wouldn't have been in the show, it still would have been a struggle for them.


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